Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Second World War => Topic started by: Ballardian on July 02, 2018, 05:23:19 PM
-
Having picked up TFL's excellent WaT at Salute this year I thought that I'd better get some more appropriate tanks than my weird war collection (Comets & Centurions for my Brits & Panther F's, various E-series & Maus(es) for the Germans) to play it.
Hence I acquired Rubicon's fantastic M4 models (an M4A2/Sherman III & an M4A1/ Firefly Ic) & WG's Cromwell. They're all good kits (as mentioned, the Rubicon ones are probably the best plastic kits in 1/56 I've seen - tons of options & fantastic fit).
First up are the WG Cromwell & Rubicon M4A2 (both are awaiting TC's) - the Firefly will follow soon.
-
That‘s actually some lovely bit of painting! The weathering in particular looks excellent.
-
Absolutely brill!
And if Rubicon is that good I should give em a try!
-
Absolute beauties :-*
Wonderful distressing and battle-scarring.
-
Many thanks, coming from painters whose work I've admired on this forum the kind words are much appreciated.
Driscoles - I'd stand by that statement, the Rubicon kits I've had experience of have been uniformly excellent. The M4 range (which are among the newer kits) are especially so - I was amazed by the options provided - (in the M4/Sherman I & M4A2/Sherman III kits) both large & small hatch upper hulls, both high & low bustle turrets, both Brit & US crew figures (for TC, driver & radio operator/bow gunner) are provided & there's also provision for making 75mm, 105mm & 17pdr armed vehicles.
-
Another vote for Rubicon from me, Björn. They are really excellent kits. Just the right balance between lovely detail and yet easy to put together. And almost always with lots of options, choices and extras. Highly recommended :)
-
Excellent work.
-
Beautiful work sir!
-
Here, as promised, is Rubicon's excellent Firefly IC - I did make (at least one) mistake - though the applique armour on the turret cheek is utilised in the instructions, I should have done a little research first - in images of IC's I've found, none seem to have it - a minor niggle but still an annoying mistake to have made :'(
-
Beautiful tanks
-
Wonderful once again! I‘d really appreciate any hints on how you’re doing your tracks. Looks really convincing.
-
Excellent work.
-
Absolutely top class :-* :-* Great job.
-
Stunning 8)
-
Really lovely work! Your weathering is spot on.
Here, as promised, is Rubicon's excellent Firefly IC - I did make (at least one) mistake - though the applique armour on the turret cheek is utilised in the instructions, I should have done a little research first - in images of IC's I've found, none seem to have it - a minor niggle but still an annoying mistake to have made :'(
I found this image of a Firefly IC in a museum. The armour on the turret looks fine to me!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Sherman_Firefly_9-08-2008_15-05-43.JPG
Regards
PM
-
Many thanks all, as I said, praise from hobbyists whose work I've admired on this forum is much appreciated :)
moiterei_1984 - as to the tracks; I believe they're representing the T48 double pin rubber chevron pattern - the track pads (the whole central section of the tracks) therefore got a coat of a mix (70-30) of Mig 032 Satin Black & 033 Rubber & Tyres. This was then given a drybrush high-light of the same paints in a 50-50 ratio (you could easily do this with your paints of choice, a black & a mid grey would be fine). I then put a line high-light on the rubber chevrons with the same paint mix as originally used, just reversed in favour of the lighter colour. The 'rubber' part of the tracks then got a black wash (in this case GW's Nuln Oil).
The end-connectors & guide teeth began with a coat of Mig 035 Dark Tracks (again, your favorite dark brown would also work - prior to this I used Vallejo VMC German Camo Black Brown 70.822, it's a similar colour) .this was drybrushed with a 50:50 mix of Vallejo VMC German Grey 70.995 & a mid silver tone - in this case Scalecolor 'Heavy Metal' SC-65.
Over this went a coat of AK Track Wash AK083 while the edges of the connectors & track guide teeth were rubbed with a graphite stick for a dull metal look.
the final stage was the pigments - Vallejo again, 60:20:20 European Earth 73.119, Light Sienna 73.104 & Light Slate Grey 73.113 - several applications were required, letting the fixative dry between each. You could also substitute artists pastels for the pigments, they're just as good & much cheaper, coming in an extensive range of colours, you just rub against some sandpaper to create the powder.
After this the whole vehicle got a coat of Windsor & Newton Professional matt varnish - hope that's of some help :)
-
All I can say to this is something along the lines of "Spreading the love on tank tracks since... "
Alot of work, but a great result. May experiment with it as well, so t(h)anks (see what I did there wink wink nudge nudge ah nevermind lol ) for the info!
It's what I like most about this board. People don't mind sharing their know-how.
-
@Ballardian: Thanks for the info mate! Well, that’s certainly a highly dedicated approach to your tracks :o and the results are definitely well worth the effort.
My lazy inner self was hoping for something along the lines of „paint it X, give it a short dry brush with Y and sprinkle on pigments Z liberally“ though lol lol
-
moiterei_1984 & Kane, you're most welcome - the tracks aren't that much of a hassle, the process looks longer in print - honest ;). Also, for any tracks which don't have rubber track pads (pretty much everything bar some M4's, M3 mediums & M3 lights) you can entirely ignore the whole painting rubber section.
Here are a trio of WG Panther Ausf A's I painted for a friend (apologies for the terrible photo, I should have taken some decent ones but didn't think about it at the time). I painted him their StuG IIIG at the same time (will get a pic) & while I quite like that model the Panthers were hard to enthuse over - I'd personally take the Rubicon offerings in preference (& now that they're branching into resin add-on bits, including sets of fully detailed tracks it looks like they're fixing the lack of track detail issue) - but opinions being just & only that, here they are (JgPz38t next).
-
Very nice.
The track painting method produces excellent results.
-
Now, those Panthers certainly don’t look too shabby either ;)
Not my favourite tank, but quite a beast nonetheless you‘ve certainly done it justice.
-
To continue on my WaT based roll, here's a JgPz 38t, also painted for a friend - in the same batch as the WG Panthers & StuG III. It's the venerable WG resin/pewter model (sculpted, I believe by this very own forum's Mainly28's - while it's largely been superseded by the Rubicon & WG plastic versions, it's still a solid little model, fun & very quick to paint.
-
Nice.
-
Very well done once more! The camo is the bees knees.
-
I recently finished (bar the crew figures) the excellent Rubicon/Heer 46 Krupp Steyr Waffentrager - certainly the best resin kit I've ever dealt with - the quality & fit are so good you'd think it was hard styrene rather than resin.
The only complaint I'd level against it is that it doesn't include crew (though they were easy enough to make from assorted other Rubicon & WG/Italeri crew models) & that the turret could've done with a little interior detail (again, easy enough to rectify, with some assorted bits of styrene rod used to represent the radio, fire extinguisher & interior stowage).
I kept the paintjob simple & resisted the temptation to over-weather it - hope you like it & all comment welcome as always. (Will add another pic once I've installed the crew.)
In WaT it'll be taking the classic glass hammer role (they've got rules for a Nashorn - so it'll be a straight substitution), so I expect it to drive bravely out, shoot once & massively overkill something before exploding due to a sharp cough :)
-
Splendid work once again! The weathering is spot on I‘d say :o
-
Fabulous work on the Waffentrager :-*
This latest round of Rubicon resin kits are an absolute joy aren't they? And you've more than done this one justice.
-
@ Captain Blood & moiterei_1984 cheers :)
Yes, the kits are the best resin models I've ever handled, better than some styrene ones.
Here's the crew-in pic as promised - again I tried to keep the crew models simple, I'd originally thought of using bits of the Rubicon 250/251 20mm turret kit, but quickly realised that given what you'd actually be able to see, there wasn't much point (after all, it's not a 1/35 kit). So I ended up just pinning the crew models to the bottom of the recoil guard.
-
Excellent paint job and interior.